Laboratory testing efficiency during the COVID pandemic: Findings from the Primary Health Care Corporation laboratories in the State of Qatar

Abstract

Background Little is known about how the COVID-19 pandemic altered laboratory testing efficiency in the State of Qatar. The aim of this study was to assess laboratory testing efficiency with respect to the total number and proportion of C-reactive protein (CRP), complete blood count (CBC), and comprehensive metabolic panel (CMP) tests completed on time in 2019–2021 in several ordinary and COVID-converted Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) health centers across Qatar.

Methods Secondary data from 2019 to 2021 were accessed from the PHCC-Clinical Information System center. Six randomly selected centers from three regions of Qatar (Northern, Central, and Western), two of which were COVID-converted, were analyzed.

Results A total of 404,316 laboratory tests were analyzed. There were decreasing, U-shaped, and inverted-U-shaped patterns in the numbers of tests conducted in different regions between 2019 and 2021 according to test type. The proportion of urgent (STAT) CBC and CMP tests increased from 2019 to 2021, and the proportion of tests completed by COVID-converted health centers increased for CRP and CBC and decreased for CMP between 2019 and 2021. Northern and Western regions in Qatar showed higher efficiency than the Central region with respect to the proportion of STAT tests completed on time in 2019–2021. COVID-converted centers completed fewer STAT CBC tests on time than ordinary centers.

Conclusion Pandemics such as COVID-19 shift the allocation of resources from routine tests to urgent tests, as exemplified by the increase in STAT test proportions in 2019 to 2021. High population densities, as noted in the Central region of Qatar, may require additional resources during pandemics to complete urgent tests more efficiently. The conversion of centers to COVID-converted centers may not necessarily translate into higher urgent test efficiency, as exemplified by the STAT CBC test results.